Monthly Archives: December 2015

Bill Papastergiadis, President of the Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria.

The current president, Bill Papastergiadis, remains unchallenged, as the members show trust in the board’s vision to further open up to the broader community.

The Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria is going to elections to appoint its new board; the process will take place on Sunday 17 Januarry, from 9.00 am to 8.00 pm at Alphington Grammar School (Old Heildeberg Rd, Alphington).

For a while, it seemed that the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria wouldn’t have to go to elections, as the number of candidates matched the number of board members. However, a 20th candidate came forward, setting forth the course of action provided in the organisation’s statute.

The candidates are: Jim Bossinakis, Alexis Costa, Nick Dallas, Angela Georgalis, Tammy Iliou, Voula Kalliani, Michalis Karamitos, George Koletsis, Nicholaos Koukouvitakis, Costas Markos, Theo Markos, Spiros Papadopoulos, Bill Papastergiadis, Nick Parthimos, Marinis Pirpiris, Christos Sikavitsas, Konstantinos Tsakoumis, Phillip Vassiliadis, Leonidas Vlahakis, and Vassiliki Zangalis.

All but five are current board members – among them president Bill Papastergiadis, who points to the presence of two women among the four new candidates as something that reflects the current board’s willingness to further open up to women within the Greek Australian community.

Another step forward is the cooperation with The National Union of Greek Australian Students Victoria (NUGAS); according to the group, each new membership to NUGAS will include a membership to the GOCMV, in what is a plan to ensure the Community’s constant infiltration with young people, who can play an important role in its rejuvenation.

UNIFIED UNDER A COMMON GOAL

Given that there is no “opposition party”, it would appear that Bill Papastergiadis’ presidency is unchallenged and that he enjoys the trust of the members of the Community. He seems to agree.

“One of the hallmarks achieved by the current board is that we are unified,” he tells Neos Kosmos. “There have been no internal rivalries; instead, we remain focused on the project that we have undertaken.

“I’ve been surrounded by talented people from a broad political spectrum; we have people from the far left to the right, working together.”

As any older member of the Community can testify, this hasn’t always been the case. Up until six years ago, it was torn into shreds in four or five different divisions, competing with each other. This is now a thing of the past and it seems that the community is satisfied with this sort of stability.

“Even people who were historically in opposition are now supporting us and have been working with us, often in various roles in the Community’s committees,” confirms Mr Papastergiadis, hoping that this will continue in the future.

“The next three years are going to be very important for the Community. We have the issue of our debt to tackle, we have a cultural and education program under way, and our ultimate goal to open up to the broader community,” he says.

“This has been pursued through joint ventures with some of the major festivals of Melbourne, such as the Jazz Festival, the Comedy Festival (45 of its shows were held at the Greek Culture Centre) and the Melbourne International Festival. Our main priority, for the near future, is to focus on the greater engagement of all the Greek organisations, as most of them are at a crossroad; some are heading toward extinction and most struggle to remain relevant. We feel that it is important that they are represented by the GOCMV.”

source:Neos Kosmos

A SURFER at Bondi Beach has reported a six-foot shark hitching a ride on his board this morning.

Local man Dean Norbun said the shark jumped on his board before swimming off under another surfer.

He had paddling at the south end of the Sydney beach, about 40 metres from popular Icebergs club and pool.

Speaking on 2GB radio, Norburn was unfazed by the brush with danger, saying it was just a reminder there are sharks in the water.

“You just gotta get out there and have a go,” he said.

Bondi Rescue Lifeguards shared the story on Facebook, saying the water had been cleared following the incident.

“Lifeguards spoke to both men and cleared the water afterwards,” the post read.

“Will be a very memorable and (sic) surf for both guys.”

The incident comes during the busiest time of year for Australia’s most famous beach.

A combination of building surf conditions and summer holidays is drawing crowds to the Sydney beach, which is expected to be one of the city’s most popular Christmas Day destinations.

At least 14 shark attacks have been recorded in NSW this year.

The high number of attacks and sighting have forced the state government to look at new measures, with Premier Mike Baird travelling to the state’s north coast this week to announce the first eco-barrier to be installed at Ballina after Christmas.

The eco-barrier nets are an improvement on traditional shark nets used in Australia because they stretch from seabed to surface and shoreline to shoreline.

They are made of thick, rigid nylon that does not trap marine wildlife, as the older nets tend to do.

The new nets are part of the NSW government’s $16 million shark strategy to protect swimmers and surfers from shark attacks. Other measures in the strategy include drum lines, shark tagging and listening devices, to keep beachgoers abreast of where sharks are via updates on Twitter.

source:news.com.au

A man and a woman went to the Stag and Hunter pub in Newcastle for drinks, had lunch, and went back to her room to “make out”.

They were celebrating the woman’s daughter’s upcoming wedding, and over the course of the “wonderful day out” in October 2013, they began to fall in love.

They married this year and live together in Queensland.

The story sounds like a happy one, but last week the Civil and Administrative Tribunal found it was not ethical for the man to take the woman out for drinks and lunch, and have intimate contact with her because he was an enrolled nurse at the aged care facility she was staying.

The tribunal ruled the nurse, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, seriously breached professional boundaries, finding him guilty of professional misconduct

The 51-year-old woman, who uses a wheelchair and needs 24-hour care, was at Mayfield Aged Care facility for respite care, when the nurse took her on an outing on his day off.

When they returned to the centre, the nurse told other staff: “We are going to her room to make out.”

Staff said the woman appeared to be drunk, and overheard her say they had “too many, but that is our secret”.

The nurse admitted undressing her, undressing himself down to his underwear and kissing and cuddling in her bed, telling concerned staff who knocked at her door: “We are busy. Go away.”

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The police were called, and the nurse was suspended from the centre.

The woman said she did not want police involved, and felt that she was not being treated as a human because of her disability.

“[He] treated me with respect and as a normal person. At no time did I feel endangered. I had a wonderful day out.

“[He] did tell the staff we were going to make out. We didn’t hide from anyone. Nobody told us it was wrong. The way we were treated was very wrong.”

The tribunal stressed it did not set out to comment on her right to start a relationship with the nurse, but to investigate whether the nurse was adhering to professional standards.

A clinical nurse consultant told the tribunal there are defined boundaries between patients and nurses so a patient can feel safe.

“As well intentioned as his action of taking her out may have seemed at the time, his breach of professional boundaries is below standard,” the consultant said.

The consultant said that giving a patient excessive amounts of alcohol ignored the risk of injury.

The tribunal also pointed to the nursing code of conduct, which says that consent to sexual activity – including kissing and cuddling – is not a defence because the integrity and trust in the nurse-patient relationship must be upheld.

“Well-intentioned acts do not make improper conduct proper,” the ruling said.

The nurse’s registration would have been cancelled if it was still current, and he is not allowed to register for 18 months.

source:theherald.com.au

FYROM foreign minister visits Athens as international media talk up referendum solution.

According to a report by The Guardian newspaper this week, Nikola Gruevski, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed ‘Republic of Macedonia’, says he is open to change his country’s name – a step that could end the 24-year dispute with Greece over the naming issue.

Mr Gruevski was described as willing to reopen dialogue with Athens on the issue – providing that any potential name change is put to a plebiscite in the former Yugoslav republic.

“We are ready to discuss, to open dialogue with them, and to find some solution,” Gruevski told The Guardian.

“We would like as soon as possible to go to dialogue with Greece to find a solution, and if we find a solution we have to go to the citizens and organise a referendum,” Mr Gruevski said.

“Through dialogue we have to find some solution, and after that to ask the citizens: is this right or not right.”

The long-running dispute has prompted Greece to consistently block its northern landlocked neighbour from joining the EU and NATO.

Australia continues to apply the United Nations resolution passed in 1993 that the country should be referred to as ‘FYROM’ until Athens and Skopje found agreement on a new name.

Previously deadlocked negotiations brokered by the UN between the two countries have included proposals for qualifying words such as ‘upper’ or ‘new’ being applied to the term ‘Macedonia’ – but no wording has yet been acceptable to both parties.

Ahead of a visit to Athens on Thursday, Skopje’s foreign minister, Nikola Poposki, told Kathimerini that “conditions are more than ripe” for the name dispute to be finally resolved.

Many believe the visit, the first in 15 years, suggests a compromise may be close.

Greek foreign minister Nikos Kotzias ended an 11-year embargo with a visit to Skopje in June, when he said that he wished “all our neighbours to be members of the European Union … because our own country, to great degree, is dependent on what happens in the Balkans as a whole”.

The Guardian story suggested that members of the leftist Tsipras government are keen to finalise a solution which some in SYRIZA blame on right wing nationalism.

Having previously warned that no new name for FYROM could include the word ‘Macedonia’, Athens conceded in 2007, saying that it would give its consent to a composite name in which it could feature.

A senior Greek foreign ministry source reportedly told media: “We have gone the extra mile. We’ve proposed a composite name with geographical qualifications for all uses.”

source:Neos Kosmos

Massive homesick saltwater crocodile travels more than 400 kilometres in an epic 20 day trek to return to his original river after he was relocated.

A saltwater crocodile trekked more than 400km in less than 20 days to return home after being relocated to the shock of researchers.

Professor Craig Franklin with the University of Queensland’s school of biological sciences moved three problem saltwater crocodiles to far north Queensland several years ago and were surprised when one turned right back around and came home, according to The Brisbane Times.

The journey from Cape York back south to its original habitat of Wenlock River in the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve destroyed Professor Franklin’s notion that saltwater crocs that pose as a threat to livestock and humans could be shifted north.

The test also proved for the first time that crocodiles use the currents of the water to help them travel, Professor Franklin said.

‘If they are travelling long distances in river systems they will use tidal movement in and out of the river to facilitate,’ he said.

The 350kg croc that was moved to the east coast of Cape York, the northern most part of the state, was four-and-a-half metres long.

Because the results proved the migration north wouldn’t be possible, Professor Franklin and his team began tagging 130 crocodiles beginning in 2008 to follow their movements in the longest tracking survey done on crocs ever, the academic said.

‘These days in the age of climate change what we want is long-term data that goes over multiple years and that way you can see the patterns that emerge and the animals behaviour and movements,’ Professor Franklin said.

By learning more about them, the public can be educated on how to peacefully coexist in the same areas as the crocodiles, he said.

‘We can inform people how to behave around crocodiles and then how to reduce those negative interactions, which is good for humans and good for crocodiles.’

source:dailymail.co.uk

THE Hunter’s main drinking water source is being tested for contamination from the Williamtown RAAF Base.

The Newcastle Herald can reveal Hunter Water has begun testing Grahamstown Dam for traces of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA).

They are the same emerging contaminants found in ground water on properties at Salt Ash and Williamtown, as well as in the Hunter River, since the Department of Defence admitted the chemicals had leaked off the base.

The dam supplies about 40 per cent of the lower Hunter’s drinking water, and is the region’s largest water supply.

Hunter Water has been testing pump stations inside the Tomago Sandbeds since 2012 when Defence first admitted they had contamination inside the airbase, and in November the Herald reported three bores had been shutdown indefinitely, potentially costing tens of millions of dollars and about 1.5 billion litres of water annually.

Now, due to what it says is “mounting public concern about the safety of drinking water”, the region’s water authority has begun testing for PFOS and PFOA at its six water treatment stations.

Hunter Water’s interim chief executive officer, Jeremy Bath, insisted it would be “physically impossible” for Grahamstown Dam to be contaminated “given the direction of the ground water movement”, but said the testing was being done decided “to promote the results as a means of ensuring the community retain confidence in the safety of our water”.

“We know the movement of the ground water and that is south to south-east, Grahamstown Dam is north to north-west from the RAAF Base,” he said.
“It would be like water running up hill.”

But Mr Bath admitted there were no physical barriers around the dam that would stop groundwater leeching in.

“It’s not like a giant swimming pool,” he said. “But, people think that what’s in Grahamstown Dam is what they’re drinking, that’s not true, it’s why the water treatment process is so important.”

Hunter Water representatives will also speak to the Senate committee hearing investigating the spread of the contaminants from the base when it meets in Newcastle on Tuesday.

source:theherald.com.au

Firefighters are working to contain a blaze north of Newcastle that had the potential to threaten homes on Sunday afternoon, as temperatures soared above 37 degrees.

The Rural Fire Service issued a “watch and act” notice about 3pm on Sunday for people with homes along Nelson Bay Road between Medowie and Richardson roads. This was downgraded to “advice” level later in the afternoon after weather conditions eased slightly, the RFS said.

The blaze had burnt through 350 hectares of land near Williamtown Airport and was now heading in a southerly direction towards Nelson Bay Road.

RFS spokesman Paul Best said 72 firefighters and two aircraft were attending to the fire, which had spotted embers past containment lines in Williamtown. Units were positioned to extinguish the blaze before it reached property, he said.

“Earlier today the fire breached containment lines and it’s moving towards property on Nelson Bay Road,” Mr Best said.

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“There is no property under direct threat as there are a number of firefighting units on the scene there and they are waiting for that fire to come out so they can extinguish it.”

Nelson Bay Road was closed between Richardson Road and Cabbage Tree Road, although police were allowing travellers through to Newcastle Airport. Medowie Road was also closed due to smoke, the RFS said.

Nelson Bay is a popular summer vacation spot and temperatures in the area reached 37.4 degrees just after 2pm on Sunday.

It came as out-of-control bushfires were threatening homes near Wodonga in Victoria, just south of the NSW border, and at Scotsburn near Ballarat.

The Wodonga blaze was becoming more complex, with a cool change poised to bring a potentially dangerous shift in winds, firefighters said.

On Saturday, 20 people were taken to hospital as a heatwave sent temperatures skyrocketing to 41.2 degrees in Melbourne and 44.4 degrees in Geelong.

Meanwhile in NSW, another fire breached containment lines in remote bushland near Thredbo. The Granuaille Mountain blaze, in the Kosciuszko National Park, has been burning since Wednesday and on Sunday morning breached a retardant containment line that was constructed late on Saturday.

The RFS said the nearby Alpine Way would be closed from midday on Sunday between Dead Horse Gap and Khancoban, blocking the road west of Thredbo. The resort was expected to remain open.

Mr Best said the fire posed no threat to people or property at this stage, but was still of concern to firefighters.

“Any fire that’s burning today is of concern with the hot and windy conditions that we’re experiencing right around NSW,” he said.

The Tom Groggin and Geehi camp grounds were closed, and visitors were asked to leave as a precaution, Mr Best said.

source:theherald.com.au